Health & Safety at Wildland Fires
Credit Hours:
1
Approximate reading time:
0.5 Hours
Approximate online time:
0.5 Hours
Program Abstract
Wildland fires pose unique health and safety challenges due to their nature as multi-agency, multi-department responses of long duration in a wide operations area. From 2010-2019, 99 firefighters were killed in wildland fire responses. These firefighters were career, volunteer, wildland part-time, wildland full-time, wildland contract, and paid-on-call. They came from 25 U.S. states. These wildland fire deaths happened to firefighters under 21 and over 61, with 52.5% of fatalities age 40 and under. The deaths happened during a wide array of activities, including fire attack, driving, incident command, pump operation, and providing support services. Wildland fire dangers affect everyone. This module discusses the unique characteristics of wildland fire responses, the known hazard categories and safety practices that mitigate these hazards, and how to practice effective risk management. The module's content is valuable for all firefighters, wildland and structural, from all types of departments and with all experience levels.